Last Tuesday morning at 2 AM, I drove my hub and Soccer Boy to the Flyaway, to catch the bus to LAX en route for Chicago, for the boys' U14 National Games, which were happening that week. It was a greatly anticipated trip which involved many meetings and a ton of fundraising, including selling homegrown avocados from my in-laws' tree, which my husband planted when he was a grounded youngster many moons ago. Let's not even talk about the recycling involved!

I knew it would be much quieter at home with the two of them gone, but that coupled with not having to fit in a soccer paractice at dinnertime every evening, has left those of us remaining at home with an awful lot of free time on our hands.

Just to put things in perspective, allow me to contrast my husband's and my recent activities:

2:00 AM Tuesday: We both woke up to drive to Flyaway

2:30 I was back in bed. Hubby and Soccer Boy were headed to LAX en route to Chicago

7:00 AM I am up getting the kids ready for summer school. Hubby and Soccer Boy are about to touch down in a very rainy Chicago. Once they land they will board a bus headed to their opening ceremonies. They are now two hours ahead of those of us in California.

9:00 AM I am at home getting ready to go to work. They are still on the bus. The bus driver has gotten lost four times, and had to be fired by the group leaders who were furious about nearly missing the opening ceremonies.

7:00 PM I and my other three are at the mall enjoying a mall food dinner and shoe shopping. Hubby has gone to a referee meeting, returned to the hotel at 10 PM only to find the TV on and Soccer Boy's hotel key on the table, but no sign of Soccer Boy. He calls Soccer Boy on his cell phone, but Soccer Boy has accidentally locked his key pad and has no idea how to unlock it and can't use his phone. We, however did get a call from Soccer Boy while we were at the mall. All was well, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. Turns out Soccer Boy had gone out to dinner with a friend but neglected to let dad know.

Noon Wednesday: I have picked up all of the kiddies from summer school and am enjoying some peace and quiet in our lovely pool. Hubby is busy reffing 5 national games and getting a pretty bad sunburn. Soccer Boy's team has won their first game against Palo Alto but lost their second game to Hawaii.

8:00 Wednesday: I am home from work and eating the dinner I cooked earlier that afternoon with the kids in the TV room. (10 PM their time) Hubby takes a shower and sends Soccer Boy into the shower to clean up and rinse the uniform. Hubby walks in to a flooded bathroom floor as the shower curtain was not placed inside the tub! They have a "grow-up" discussion. (Glad I missed that one!)

Noon Thursday: I am at work in the quiet air-conditioned library and the kids are home playing. Hubby and Soccer Boy are on the bus all over town, reffing and playing soccer. Their fireworks show the evening prior amounted to nothing more than glowing clouds as it was too overcast to actually see the fireworks. We had a nice quiet game of Rummikub at home.

5:00 PM Thursday: I came home from work, and wasn't feeling too well due to a bit of the flu bug. Decided to watch a movie with the kids before doing the dinner gig. We watched The Blue Butterfly which is a sleeper movie based on a true story starring William Hurt, about an entomologist who grants a dying boy's last wish to travel to the rain forest in search of the Blue Morpho butterfly. It was shot on location in the rain forests of Costa Rica, and it was a fabulous film. I recommend it to everyone. Hubby and Soccer Boy were on the bus on the way to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

That's as far as we go for now.I hope for Soccer Boy's sake that there have been no further shower or cell phone malfunctions. When hubby called to check in, he sounded calm as they were riding on their bus. Amazing that the cell phones were working while he was on the bus that far away. When the Princess talked to her dad and brother, she remarked how boring it was with them gone. When the Buddah Boy talked to his brother, he first asked how many games they had won (not even considering that they might have lost a game or two) and then remarked that it was "dead" at our house without Soccer Boy and dad at home.But that was before I cooked up the "Tacostadas" for dinner. Buddah Boy wanted to name my culinary invention "The Resurrection of Taco Bell." I liked that, but can't you envision the Taco Bell chihuahua boasting over "Tacostadas?" Computer Boy ate two large Tacostadas, and recommended I patent the name and sell it to Taco Bell. Bet hubby is missing my cooking at about this point, although he gets to eat a BBQ Pork Pig sandwich. I know this, because I got to pre- order it for him. I have to admit, I don't much care for separate family vacations (not that you could call going to a soccer tournament or staying home to man the fort an actual vacation). I know the days of all six of us doing family events together are quickly coming to a close. I am going to do my best to make sure that we get one more family vacation to Hawaii in before it becomes impossible. And you can bet that it will NOT be soccer related, unless we have to travel over there to even the score! Aloha!

****At the time of this posting, the games have terminated and Granada Hills Boys' U-14 took First Place!!!! Soccer Boy scored a goal and hubby reffed 16 games, There was a nice little article in the Daily News, and I am enjoying the break from all of those practices. In two weeks, AYSO resumes and we have three players and a very busy ref!****

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed
with only the
left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes
open.

Maine is the only state whose name is
just one syllable.

No word in the English language rhymes
with month,
orange, silver, or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that
ends in the
letters "mt".

Our eyes are always the same size from
birth, but our
nose and ears never stop growing.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps
over the lazy
dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level'
are the same
whether they are read left to right or right to
left (palindromes).

There are only four words in the English
language which
end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous,
and hazardous.

There are two words in the English
language that have all
five vowels in order: "abstemious" and
"facetious."

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can
be made using the
letters only on one row of the keyboard.

All 50 states are listed across the top
of the Lincoln
Memorial on the back of the $5 bill

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three
seconds. (Some days
that's about what my memory span is)

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for
1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink
with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a
used furniture
dealer.

Almonds are a member of the peach
family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its
brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They
don't appear until
the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds.
Dogs only have
about 10.

February 1865 is the only month in
recorded history not
to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals
have been
domesticated.

If the population of China walked past
you, 8 abreast,
the line would never end because of the rate of
reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your
whole life, you
will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red
lights.

Leonardo DaVinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of
dynamite!

Rubber bands last longer when
refrigerated.

The average person's left hand does 56%
of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six
inches for each
gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a
researcher walked by a
radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his
pocket.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that
Niagara Falls froze
completely solid.

There are 293 ways to make change for a
dollar.

There are more chickens than people in
the world.

There's no Betty Rubble in the
Flintstones Chewables
Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just
striped fur.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies'
room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer
of mucus every
two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

August 7, 2006

Next Post date September 4, 2006

THERE ARE NO HOLIDAYS IN AUGUST!

The Trading Pin We Got To Design For the National Games in Chicago

Muslim Toilet (Remind me never to visit!)

Quotes:

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

-Jimmy Carter

***

We may pass violets looking for roses. We may pass contentment looking for victory.

-Bern Williams

***

The more you have, the more you're occupied; the less you have, the more free you are.

-Mother Teresa

***

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.

-Charlotte Bronte

***

Values are like fingerprints. Nobody's are the same, but you leave 'em all over everything you do.

-Elvis Presley

***

The love of God is like the Amazon river flowing down to water one daisy.

-Unknown

***

When solving problem, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves.

-Anthony J. D'Angelo

***

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.

-Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

***

People may fail many times, but they become failures only when they begin to blame someone else.

-Unknown

***

n seeking wisdom the first step is silence, the second: listening, the third: remembering, the fourth: practicing, the fifth: teaching others.

- Solomon Ibn Gabirol

***

In the final analysis, for the believer there are no questions, and for the non-believer there are no answers.

- The Haffetz Hayyim

***

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

-Anne Frank

***

Those who are free from arrogance, anger, and lust
Will prosper in great dignity.

-Tirukkural 43

***

Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all.

-Buddha

***

The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

-Erica Jong

***

If you have a reason, you don't need to shout.

-Zen proverb

***

All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold and reveal itself. All you have to do is be still and take time to seek for what is within, and you will surely find it.

-Eileen Caddy

***

Grace is when God gives us what we don't deserve and mercy is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve.

-Unknown

***

I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves.

-C.S. Lewis

***

The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.

-Vince Lombardi

***

The virtue of angels is that they cannot deteriorate; their flaw is that they cannot improve. Humanity's flaw is that we can deteriorate; but our virtue is that we can improve.

- Hasidic saying

***

How far that little candle shows his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

-William Shakespeare

***

A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.

-The Wizard to the Tin Man (submitted by tranme)

***

Everything should be made as simple as possible--but not simpler.

- Albert Einstein

***

Yesterday is ashes; tomorrow is wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.

-Old Eskimo proverb

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